CMG Bets on SHAX’s Louis La Chance

Cinema Management Group is putting good money down on a new CG-animated feature about the Monaco Grand Prix. The international sales outfit signed worldwide sales rights to Louis La Chance, a $16 million CG-animated feature produced by SHAX France and LuxAnimation.

Directed by veteran French toon helmer Philippe Leclerk (The Rain Children, Princess of the Sun) and Xavier Aliot (Exit), the movie follows the adventures of Louis and his brother Remi as they make plans to enter the 1934 Grand Prix with their dad’s restored Bugatti using a new racing fuel invented by Remi. Along the way, they have to fend off the nefarious plans hatched by their opponent, Baron Franz Borgstein, and the evil dictator, Hash.

The film was developed by Aliot and Hugues Sauvaire, who co-founded SHAX France in 2006. Specializing in 3D animated feature films, SHAX is also in production on an 85-minute animated CG-animated film titled Sarila in collaboration with its Canadian and English partners 10th Avenue and CarpeDiem in Canada, as well as U.K.’s Charactershop.

‘Louis La Chance is funny, thrilling, and action-packed,’ says CMG exec Edward Noelter, who is shopping the film in Cannes this week. ‘It’s a timeless story of young heroes doing the right thing and with the worldwide fan base of Formula One racing, it’s being made for kids and adults of all ages. As with the animated hit Hoodwinked, which CMG represented for international sales back in 2004, I see this as a wonderful combination of warmth, humor and excitement.’